Computer disk drives store information on magnetic disks. Typically, the information is stored on each disk in concentric tracks that are divided into sectors. Information is written to and read from a disk by a transducer that is mounted on an actuator arm capable of moving the transducer radially over the disk. Accordingly, the movement of the actuator arm allows the transducer to access different tracks. The disk is rotated by a spindle motor at high speed which allows the transducer to access different sectors on the disk.
A conventional disk drive, generally designated 10, is illustrated in FIG. 1. The disk drive comprises a disk 12 that is rotated by a spin motor 14. The spin motor 14 is mounted to a base plate 16. An actuator arm assembly 18 is also mounted to the base plate 16.
The actuator arm assembly 18 includes a transducer 20 (having a write head and a read head) mounted to a flexure arm 22 which is attached to an actuator arm 24 that can rotate about a bearing assembly 26. The actuator arm assembly 18 also contains a voice coil motor 28 which moves the transducer 20 relative to the disk 12. The spin motor 14, voice coil motor 28 and transducer 20 are coupled to a number of electronic circuits 30 mounted to a printed circuit board 31. The electronic circuits 30 typically include a read channel chip, a microprocessor-based controller and a random access memory (RAM) device.
The disk drive 10 typically includes a plurality of disks 12 and, therefore, a plurality of corresponding actuator arm assemblies 18. However, it is also possible for the disk drive 10 to include a single disk 12 as shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram which illustrates a conventional disk drive 10 that is coupled to a host computer 32 via an input/output port 34. The disk drive 10 is used by the host computer 32 as a data storage device. The host 32 delivers data access requests to the disk drive 10 via port 34. In addition, port 34 is used to transfer customer data between the disk drive 10 and the host 32 during read and write operations.
In addition to the components of the disk drive 10 shown and labeled in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 illustrates (in block diagram form) the disk drive's controller 36, read/write channel 38 and interface 40. Conventionally, data is stored on the disk 12 in substantially concentric data storage tracks on its surface. In a magnetic disk drive 10, for example, data is stored in the form of magnetic polarity transitions within each track. Data is “read” from the disk 12 by positioning the transducer 20 above a desired track of the disk 12 and sensing the magnetic polarity transitions stored within the track, as the track moves below the transducer 20. Similarly, data is “written” to the disk 12 by positioning the transducer 20 above a desired track and delivering a write current representative of the desired data to the transducer 20 at an appropriate time.
The actuator arm assembly 18 is a semi-rigid member that acts as a support structure for the transducer 20, holding it above the surface of the disk 12. The actuator arm assembly 18 is coupled at one end to the transducer 20 and at another end to the VCM 28. The VCM 28 is operative for imparting controlled motion to the actuator arm 18 to appropriately position the transducer 20 with respect to the disk 12. The VCM 28 operates in response to a control signal icontrol generated by the controller 36. The controller 36 generates the control signal icontrol in response to, among other things, an access command received from the host computer 32 via the interface 40.
The read/write channel 38 is operative for appropriately processing the data being read from/written to the disk 12. For example, during a read operation, the read/write channel 38 converts an analog read signal generated by the transducer 20 into a digital data signal that can be recognized by the controller 36. The channel 38 is also generally capable of recovering timing information from the analog read signal. During a write operation, the read/write channel 38 converts customer data received from the host 32 into a write current signal that is delivered to the transducer 20 to “write ” the customer data to an appropriate portion of the disk 12. The read/write channel 38 is also operative for continually processing data read from servo information stored on the disk 12 and delivering the processed data to the controller 36 for use in, for example, transducer positioning.
FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic representation of a simplified top view of a disk 12 having a surface 42 which has been formatted to be used in conjunction with a sectored servo system (also known as an embedded servo system). As illustrated in FIG. 3, the disk 12 includes a plurality of concentric tracks 44a-44h for storing data on the disk's surface 42. Although FIG. 3 only shows a relatively small number of tracks (i.e., 8) for ease of illustration, it should be appreciated that typically tens of thousands of tracks are included on the surface 42 of a disk 12.
Each track 44a-44h is divided into a plurality of data sectors 46 and a plurality of servo sectors 48. The servo sectors 48 in each track are radially aligned with servo sectors 48 in the other tracks, thereby forming servo wedges 50 which extend radially across the disk 12 (e.g., from the disk's inner diameter 52 to its outer diameter 54).
During the disk drive manufacturing process, a special piece of equipment known as a servo track writer (STW) is used to write the radially-aligned servo information which forms servo wedges 50. A STW is a very precise piece of equipment that is capable of writing servo information on the disk surface with a high degree of positional accuracy. In general, a STW is a very expensive piece of capital equipment. Thus, it is generally desirable that a STW be used as efficiently as possible during manufacturing operations. Even a small reduction in the amount of data needed to be written by the STW per disk surface can result in a significant cost and time savings.
FIG. 4 depicts, in block diagram form, certain portions of a conventional servo track writer 56 and a disk drive 10. Only those components that are used to position the disk drive's actuator arm assembly 18 radially relative to the center of the disk surface are shown in FIG. 4. Among other things, the servo track writer 56 includes an STW digital signal processor (DSP) 58, a STW voice-coil motor (VCM) 60, a STW actuator arm assembly 62 and a push-pin system 64.
In order to write servo information on to a disk surface 12, the disk drive 10 is loaded onto the STW 56 and is held securely in place. One of a variety of push-pin systems 64 (e.g., a mechanical push-pin system or an optical push-pin system) is used to create an interface between the actuator arm assembly 18 of disk drive 10 and the actuator arm assembly 62 of the servo track writer 56. By properly positioning the STW actuator arm assembly 62, the actuator arm assembly 18 and, hence, the transducer 20 of the disk drive 10 may be positioned at an appropriate location relative to the center of the disk surface 12. In order to effectuate this positioning, the STW 56 uses a servo loop formed by an external relative encoder (see block 76 in FIG. 6), which cooperates with (or forms a part of) the STW VCM 60, and a compensation circuit (see block 76 in FIG. 6).
Once the transducer 20 is appropriately positioned relative to the disk surface 12, servo information is then written by the transducer 20 onto the disk surface 12 at the particular radial location. Subsequently, the STW actuator arm assembly 62 is used to position the actuator arm assembly 18 of the disk drive 10 at a next radial location and servo information is written at this radial location. The process repeats until servo information is written at all predetermined radial locations across the disk surface 12.
As shown in FIG. 4, the STW 56 also includes a crystal 66 and a divide-by-N circuit 68 which are used to provide a series of interrupt signals 70 (see FIG. 5) to the STW DSP 58 at predetermined sample times, Ts. Upon receipt of an interrupt signal 70, the STW DSP 58 performs an interrupt service routine (ISR) 72, which last for a duration generally less than the sample time, Ts, as indicated by the brackets shown in FIG. 5.
FIG. 6 depicts, in block diagram form, the steps of a conventional interrupt service routine. As shown in FIG. 6, the ISR broadly includes the steps of: profile generation (block 74), STW servo loop closure, whereby the generated profile is followed (block 76), and communication/housekeeping between the host computer 32 and the STW DSP 58 (block 78).
Because servo information is conventionally written by placing transducers at radial locations across the disk surface and then writing servo information which is used to define a track, the time for writing servo information increases as the total number of tracks able to be placed on a disk surface increases. Since the number of tracks per inch (TPI) continues to increase, manufacturing times are likely to continue to increase, unless more servo track writers are supplied. However, as alluded to above, the purchase of additional servo track writers involves a significant capital expense.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a technique for reducing the amount of time required by a STW while still allowing for servo information to be completely written onto a disk surface, so that manufacturing costs can be decreased and manufacturing throughput can be increased.